redshiftlogs | persona non grata. [OPEN]

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persona non grata. [OPEN]

WHO: Rey and you!
WHAT: After keeping her distance for a while, Rey runs into the inevitable -- other people. And also an obsessive mutant cat that seems to follow her wherever she goes.
WHERE: All over Anchor.
WHEN: Month of October.

NOTES: I have a strong preference towards prose but I can handle brackets as well!

i. Bar;

There were periods in which Rey would spend days without seeing or communicating with another person. An unhealthy habit for sure, but it was something she had become used to during her period in the sky prison, carefully evading the synthetic wards among the labyrinthine corridors and inner tunnels and pipes. For someone as heavy and lumbering as Rey, she was surprisingly agile and stealthy. It also helped that she had plenty of experience in knowing where to go and how to avoid being seen.

Right now she's not spending much effort in doing so. After all, she's found that this isn't in fact the sky prison. There's no IV or synthetic sentry in sight, as far as she can tell. If there were... Well, she would just have to deal with them as they came.

Today, she just wants a drink or twenty. Except every time she orders, the fucking robot bartender gets her order wrong. And it couldn't have possibly gotten her order more wrong if it threw its memory core through a trash compactor where it belonged.

"Useless heap of fuck-metal shit," Rey seethes as she tosses the tequila sunrise aside. "Don't you know how to-- AUGH."

Luckily, she's not too drunk to avoid ducking in time as another tequila sunrise goes sailing over her head, intended for her face. The glass shatters against the wall, spilling liquor across the floor and then some.

Hissing between her teeth, Rey straightens herself immediately, fingers balled into fists as her eyes widen at the robot. "You motherfucker, you planned that, didn't you!"

Honestly, you just can't trust robots. None of them.

ii. Mess Hall;

Much like her social habits, eating is something Rey has been putting off for a while. There's plenty of water and booze at the bar, but you can only go on for so long on a liquid diet before the body starts to crave for something more.

Rey, on the other hand, could stave off those urges for months if she had to. If she had to being the key phrase here. Once it became glaringly obvious that she doesn't have to starve herself in order to evade whatever authority or presence here, or if it even matters to do so at all, she finally takes the risk to venture deeper into the depths of the city for something more than just scouting the vicinity. She could survive without food and water longer than a human, but that doesn't mean the urge doesn't creep up on her after a few weeks. Then, once again, it's about survival rather than obstinacy and pride.

Upon arriving there, however, she's not quite sure what to do with herself anymore. She's never cooked before, at least never any complicated meals that didn't come already prepped out of a can. She grimaces at the pre-made options, most which look to be well passed their expiration.

"Wehhhh," comes a whiny voice at her heel.

Rey looks down to see the same one-eyed tripedal feline bumping its head against her knee. It's been following her after she ran into some other weirdo at the bar, and she hasn't been able to shake the thing ever since. It doesn't take an animal person to assume what it probably wants, though. "Guess you must be hungry, huh?"

Naturally, the cat doesn't answer, though you never know. The last saptient being pretending to be just another animal turned out to be pretty wordy in the end.

No such luck this time. Just another flat "weehhh" as the feline sits on its hindquarters to paw at her with its one front paw. Chances are more likely that it's trying to urge her to care for herself first, but hell if Rey is going to take that hint.

iii. Bottom Levels;

Despite a perfectly functional barracks in the upper floors, Rey doesn't make herself known there. Being in places where people can expect to find her, where she can be easily tracked, is not something she is accustomed to. It's better to make herself scarce wherever possible. Don't get comfortable. Keep moving. No use in getting attached to whatever lifestyle they're expected to have here. And she refuses to become a complacent little hamster in a cage. No, that's not her. She won't let it happen; not if she has a say in the matter.

What few hours of sleep she allows herself ends up being in the most awkward places. Sometimes she can be found at the plaza or park, eyes mostly closed, only peering through slits as she stands in the middle of a walkway or shoulder leaning against a wall -- quietly snoring and drooling a little out the corner of her mouth until she's nudged awake by a concerned or amused passersby.

Other times she is pouring over what remains of the library, though barely able to keep herself cognizant of the words in front of her before nodding off at a desk. From time to time she'll jolt herself awake, slamming her forehead against the tabletop.

That damned cat might be accompanying her again, pawing and nudging at her as if trying to communicate some message that she refuses to diciper. Honestly, she figured that it would have moved on by now once it realized she had nothing special to offer it, but no matter what she does the animal always seems to find its way back to her. It would be annoying if it didn't also didn't help keep her awake at the same time. Small miracles, indeed.

iv; Wildcard

[ooc: Have something else in mind you'd like to do with Rey, or none of the above suit your fancy? Make your own or hit me up! Also feel free to check out my CR meme comment for info/ideas.]

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Well now Peter looks very interested.

"Oh yeah? Like, I'm sorry that you're stuck here, but we could really use more tech people around here."

Rey shrugs, waving her free hand dismissively. If previous comments are any indication, she's not too broken up about being stranded.

"Am handy enough to get by, anyway. Have taken apart synth-- machines to figure out how they tick." She watches the barbot, as if expecting it to react to her statement. While she could have easily run her own diagnositics if she had the right equipment, if it were up to her, she'd rather the robots not be here at all. Makes them easily hackable variables.

"That's more experience than most people have right now. Honestly, having someone who can help with robot maintenance around would be really huge, there are tons of these guys hanging around."

Peter cocks his head toward our good buddy barbot, then glances over at it, "I promise they're not all as bad as this one."

Rey eyes the bar bot suspiciously.

"Wouldn't be so sure about that. They all have the capacity to be reprogrammed and altered by the right person who just happens to have the wrong intentions."

Said like a true person who's seen and experienced those things firsthand.

"I mean, you're not wrong, but so far I'm confident that we don't have anyone around here who would pull a stunt like that."

Not that the word of some kid really means a lot, but it's all he's got to offer right now.

Rey doesn't look convinced.

"Have met one person with the capacity for it, at least. That's more than enough." One of the first things she saw upon her arrival was Qubit reprogramming a robot for his own purposes, and Rey hasn't quite been able to gauge his intentions with that yet. As if she needed more reasons to be on edge and suspicious of everyone.

Unfortunately Peter trusts Qubit with his life at this point, which may or may not be a good thing. He doesn't know any better, leave him alone.

"I might know who you're talking about. Dude with ridiculous hair?"

"Ugh, yeah. That guy. Probably."

The description clicks immediately. Helps when there aren't that many people here to fit that bill to start with. Truth be told, he hasn't necessarily done anything to merit Rey's mistrust, but his interest in tinkering with robotics alone was enough for her to be suspicious.

Okay, Peter cant help but laugh at that reaction. Sorry, Qubit. But not really.

"I know he's a little eccentric, but he's really not that bad. If it wasn't for him, I would have probably had some kinda nervous breakdown by now trying to keep this place running."

The way Rey looks at Peter, she's still not entirely convinced. It's not like everyone does things with bad intentions. In her experience, it's oftentimes the most well-meaning types that are capable of the worst things. But maybe that might be getting a little on the overly dramatic side of things.

Instead she just gives him a skeptical glance.

"Can't be that hard. Not like there's a big head count to keep track of."

"Well, that's the problem. We don't have a big headcount, and this place is huge. I can count on one hand the amount of people who have the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain and repair the computer systems, or the life support, or the robots, or the shields. It's not like they're doing nothing, a lot of people have skills in other super important areas, but we're all stretched pretty thin here."

He shrugs, that's about all he's got. It's a big job and everybody's doing it, but damn it is a bigass job.

Oh. That makes sense.

"Well fuck," Rey bluntly says as she finishes off her drink. She's starting to feel like she's going to be needing a lot more of these to get through the day. "Is there any way to get your ducks in a row, see what shit needs to be delegated to where?"

While many memories might not be her own, Rey has plenty of the military life to know how to abide by a strict schedule when necessary. Maybe some direction is needed here, both for herself and for everyone else.

Well fuck sums it up rather nicely, all Peter can do is just shrug and nod a bit in response to that one.

"I'm sure there is, but that's not-- so, I'm actually really bad at delegating tasks? I'm sure that's something that I personally could use some help with."

Pretty much everybody he knows would be so proud of him for asking for help right now, it's kind of sad.

Oof, that's definitely an ask for help if Rey had ever seen one, and she has half a mind to pretend that she didn't notice or just ignore him altogether. Exit stage left. Instead she just grunts and pours herself another drink.

"Sure as fuck isn't easy, but it's possible. Long as people are willing to chip in."

She can only hope that there's only so much bumming around they can do. Even Rey is starting to get antsy.

She is a true hero and Peter will be the most grateful boy ever if she helps him with his dumb self.

"Most people are. Honestly, we really don't have to many slackers. At least not that I'm aware of?" Again, dude spends most of his time working, so he really doesn't pay attention to a lot of what other people do around here.

What he says doesn't surprise her very much.

"Makes sense, idle hands and whatnot." She sits herself over the bartop as she thoughtfully continues her new drink. "Found a security room a while back -- was protected by some heavy artillery. Maybe that'd give a better idea on what else could be worked on to make this place more functional."

That seems like a helpful thing to bring up, at least.

"The one that was guarded by turrets and robots and stuff? I haven't had a chance to get back in there, but you might be right. So far I've just been manually monitoring everything, but if we could just keep an eye on it all from one place, it would literally cut our work in half."

Though to be fair the manual check ups did give Peter an excuse to get out of the lab, but eh.

Rey nods, confirming that they're on the same page. She almost got turned into swiss cheese by those turrets, and the result was... Well, she can't say it's worth it, but what she found was interesting, to say the least.

"Wait. By 'manually monitoring', you mean you've just been patrolling this whole place on foot?" Not that there's a whole lot else to do around here, and Rey's found herself walking around aimlessly at times, investigating corners and turns here and there as well. But still. Team coordination goes a long way.

"Yep, nailed it. To be fair, I can get around a lot faster than... pretty much everyone else here, so it's not really a big deal. When I don't have anything to work on, it's not a bad way to pass the time."

He rarely finds anything too concerning on his patrols, but when he does he's at least pretty good about alerting other people.

"Maybe not, but it can definitely be a waste of time if you can't also happen to be in multiple places at once."

Rey know what it's like to have sitting doing nothing, feeling useless... but she also knows that best efforts being for naught can be just as bad. No wonder why the kid is vaguely asking for help with things.

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persona non grata. [OPEN]

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